I wouldn’t call it a mid-life crisis but coming on the heels of 2010’s relatively upbeat Harlem River Blues, you have to wonder what is running through Justin Townes Earle’s head. On one hand, I find that Earle’s songwriting has never been stronger; it is too bad that his father Steve couldn’t churn out a record this good in the past five years. While there are a few moments of sunshine to be heard here, Nothing’s Gonna Change… is an otherwise sullen, low-key outing that will ultimately help cement Earle’s status as one of the best roots-country songwriters in the biz today.

I’m actually a big Steve Earle fan but I have admittedly found that his last few records (with the exception of Townes) haven’t stood up to the material he was releasing around the turn of the century. I can listen to El Corazon, The Mountain and Transcendental Blues on repeat. Jerusalem and The Revolution Starts Now had some great tracks but this is also where I started to feel that he was treading the same ground over and over…